Brussels, 10/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European People's Party (EPP) under the leadership of Wilfried Martens is holding its traditional pre-European Council summit on 13 December in Meise, near Brussels, with the participation of several heads of government, President of the EPP-ED Group Hans-Gert Pöttering, European Commissioners Michel Barnier and Chris Patten and, for the first time as president of a member party, RPR President Michèle Alliot-Marie. Iain Duncan Smith, British Conservative leader, will attend as a guest.
On Friday, the EPP leaders will discuss the document A Constitution for a Strong Europe approved by the Party's Bureau (see EUROPE of 7 December, p.4), which affirms that "our duty is to create a European Union that is worthy of the name - based on a European Constitution". The document, which restates an attachment to the values of the "post-war Christian Democrat generation", proposes to give a "clear but open" definition of the frontiers of Europe and to provide institutionalised cooperation for the countries that cannot or do not wish to join the EU, through "European Partnership" that is similar to the European Economic Area, but including a political component.
The EPP will be the first European party to submit a comprehensive concept for a European Constitution, which should divide competences between the Union and the Member States, and, where no competences have been allocated, the responsibility will be automatically incumbent upon the Member States, says the document, suggesting above all the creation of a Constitutional Court or a Constitutional Chamber at the Court of Justice, to decide upon the allocation of competences. According to the EPP, moreover, a clearer distribution of competences must strengthen the national parliaments, and the EU must be granted full juridical personality (Ed.: such attempts failed during the previous IGC). As far as the institutions are concerned, the document calls for the Council and the Parliament to focus on their legislative role ("executive functions" should no longer be exercised by the Council) and that the Commission should be developed into the "real Executive of the Union" with a president elected by the European Parliament and confirmed by the Council with majority voting (the tasks of Council Secretariat should be carried out by the Commission, the document also states).